Indian Hospitals Are Destination For Global Healthcare Needs
The Indian healthcare industry is growing at a rate of 15 percent with a current estimation of USD 65 billion industry. If it grows at this pace it can easily touch USD 260 billion by 2020. The current healthcare market in India is emerging market place for both developing and developed countries. Despite its challenges of demand and supply, Indian healthcare market is a potential leader for global healthcare market as well. The cost and affordability of Indian healthcare market with the best clinical talent pool, makes India a very attractive proposition in the global scenario. Other than government sector, we have large private players in the healthcare market which provide the best of healthcare with the latest technology and best clinical expertise. With the right market of pricing, long term focus, organizational flexibility, and no waiting time for treatment – Indian healthcare market could represent a most sought after destination for global healthcare needs.
The Indian healthcare market has shown promises and growth to the global investors. In recent decades, many global players have set their footprint in the region. The Indian healthcare market has stood right as the global leader for healthcare tourism. Because of us, many developing countries patients can afford to come and have level 3 treatments at our centers. The international patient’s positive feedback, testimony, and word-of-mouth have provided many more patients to look forward to us for treatment.
On budgetary allocation in healthcare
Every year during the union budget there are many things said and done for healthcare budgetary allocation but it is never enough in relation to the healthcare need of Indian market. India has an average of 1.3-1.4 percent of GDP spent on healthcare as part of the public expenditure as compared to the global 6 percent. To meet the objectives, government needs to increase their budget allocations by at least 20 percent year-on-year for the next 7-8 years. With many lifestyle diseases evolving and mental health becoming the biggest challenge in healthcare, the budgetary allocation needs more insight.
To provide healthcare benefits to all we need to put more money in the budgetary allocation and also monitor the same. The audit process of using the budgetary allocation must be followed so that all can benefit from the same. Also, there must be a common platform where all the leaders could meet and discuss the new advancement in medical care to make it more affordable for all. Health needs special attention in everyone’s life; even individual families need to fix their budgetary allocation in case they have to deal with an emergency. Healthcare will be everyone’s need at any part of life and we must allocate a budget, both at the \government and individual level.
On planned budgetary allocation for the fiscal year 2018-19, and proportion allotted for procurement of medical equipment and devices
Almost 51 percent of our total planned earnings is budgeted for running our operations which includes the salaries of staff, operational cost, depreciation cost, interests, and taxes. Almost 3-3.5 percent of the budgeted revenue is spent on the capital investment of equipment, plant, and machinery.
On vision for Health and Family Welfare and challenges faced while implementing health services
My vision of Health and Family Welfare is to create a place where committed people are working to facilitate to attain the universal access to affordable and quality healthcare in India. We partner for various social causes to spread awareness on health and prevention for disease. We are leading in many social campaigns, where the message is prevention of disease. As an organization, we have created many platforms where we use the message to create more awareness about prevention of disease.
Access and affordability is the biggest challenge that we as private healthcare providers face. Due to high end medical equipment and infrastructure, the spent on maintaining and providing high end clinical care keeping in mind the affordability is an uphill task. Further, even though we attempt to provide affordable care, the returns on our credit partnerships are differed, leading us to deal with huge outstanding amount. The private players need support from the state and central government to be able to help sustain and provide continuous care to the population.
On monitoring the quality of private healthcare
Private healthcare contributes immensely to the healthcare delivery system of the country. Almost 75 percent of the population uses the private hospitals for their healthcare needs. Quality of medical care and outcomes are the USP of the corporate healthcare delivery system. We as an organization, have a separate vertical at both the central and the facility level to monitor both clinical and non-clinical quality. Data is collected through various dashboards, reported, analyzed for process improvement. We have very strong standard operating procedures, guidelines, and protocols – deviations from which are very critically monitored.
In fact, we are the first hospital chain in India to implement, monitor, and publish our clinical outcomes for key procedures as CABG, kidney transplant, PTCA, and radiation oncology while monitoring for a few other procedures. All our hospitals are NABH accredited and few of our hospitals also have the JCI accreditation (International Accreditation). So, in a nutshell, quality and private corporate healthcare go hand-in-hand. We invest a lot in quality healthcare and better outcomes. With better standard operating procedures, we as an organization try to reach the benchmark of global standard. In numerous occasions it was proven that our standard practice of quality control is in sync with many western healthcare providers or even better than them.
On importance of public private partnership in making healthcare a success
Well, this is a question with plausible answers keeping in mind the scenario one is talking in context. With respect to the Indian healthcare scenario, we would need a laddered approach for both rural and urban set-up. While the rural PPP model might demand affordable cost and smaller set-ups with more penetration, the urban model might demand better quality (for the higher spend of insurance etc.) and larger facilities. To cater to 140 crore diverse population of India, a tailormade approach of the PPP model needs to be made for the success of healthcare delivery.
On areas where government should invest to make healthcare available to everyone on the go
There has not been significant rise in number of government medical colleges in recent times whereas the demand for medical staff has gone up and private medical colleges are not in reach for everyone. Developing hospitals along with medical colleges is what government should do. Government nursing colleges should be another area of focus so that we are able to sustain the ever increasing need of providing healthcare. Organ donation awareness is another area, where the government can play a huge role in the movement where one life can save many lives and we become healthier as a nation. Fortis is the leader in awareness drives for organ donation and going beyond to give hope for more to live. Apart from setting up more medical colleges and institutes, we must work together to create more awareness about communicable diseases so that we can eradicate them.
Also, in the field of medical research I suggest government should go hand-in-hand with private healthcare establishments. There are top line globally recognized doctors who are working in brining first of its kind techniques in India but what we lack is developing the techniques. The research area for medical upgradation is untouched by government. There should be separate budget in healthcare to establish research facilities where aspiring and dedicated doctors can do research.
Also, the data collection of these researches takes ages to be declared, we need to expedite these data collection and outcome. In many of the cases there is conflict between research done by either private sector healthcare provider or government set up. There are pool of talented doctors and academicians in India who are looking for monetary benefits to conduct medical research. I suggest government should invest more in them to bring India on medical research map.
On policy interventions that the healthcare sector in the state needs to align with the healthcare objectives at large at the national level
If the healthcare objectives at the central level are to provide quality and affordable care to all, so should the dictate. Neither can deliver in isolation and so interdependency and alignment is a must across all policies. Dissonance can only alter the national healthcare agenda.
On goal to provide healthcare to all
We as a corporate healthcare set-up are committed to provide high-end quality healthcare with increased focus on patient centricity and engagement. We have the highest medical standards to measure ourselves with. Our best clinical talent thrives on the well-being of our patients and their outcomes. I am glad that we are part of a leading healthcare provider in the country and thriving to achieve the goal to provide healthcare to all.
